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Love Me Now? sets Tory Lanez up for big 2019

Tory Lanez, the singer-rapper whose real name (Daystar) is more of a stage name than his made-up stage name, dropped his third studio album on Oct. 26.

Love Me Now? is Lanez’s second album release of the year, serving as the turn-up to the wind-down of his March project Memories Don’t Die. His second studio effort drew criticisms of being unoriginal and attempting to imitate the styles of other popular acts, including his personal hometown rival Drake. It’s no surprise, then, that on the press run for Love Me Now?, Lanez explains he took a mixtape approach to this project, which is how he believes he produces his best music.

The differences between the two projects are stark in a way that the two sides of Drake’s Scorpion are different. The proximity of the releases, however, wouldn’t make it a surprise if Love Me Now? and Memories Don’t Die were also supposed to serve as a double-disc album. If that were the plan, the reason to evacuate it would obviously be to avoid further comparisons to the 6 god. The mistake was releasing Memories Don’t Die prior to Love Me Now?, which is a more enjoyable project and displays more of Lanez’s own original sound. Unfortunately, the prior project may have dimmed anticipation and subsequently the overall reach of the latter.

If LMN? was actually recorded as a separate album, it shows great growth within a short period of time and should serve as a springboard for Lanez to catapult himself back into the conversation of top hip-hop singer-song makers going into 2019. In order to do that, however, Lanez will need to dive deeper on future efforts. As far as content, LMN? doesn’t offer much for people who don’t plan to skip cuffing season and thot all winter. But if that’s your plan, relate away. As Tory said on “ThE RUn oFF,” “Baby Ima/smoke this marijuana/and do what I wanna … I be all up in the streets/doing my thing and fucking these freaks.”

The album’s lack of subject matter depth is saved by a star studded feature list, including Chris Brown, Trey Songz and 2 Chainz, and banging production. It’s far from a classic, but LMN? should keep Tory in rotation for a little while.